Women's Cross Country: Ferentino, Raiders compete at Suffolk Invitational

Story written and posted by Anthony Perry, Rivier University Sports Information Director

BOSTON, MASS. – The Rivier University Men's and Women's Cross Country teams competed this afternoon at the annual Suffolk Invitational with the course being hosted by Suffolk University at Boston's Franklin Park. Both races featured deep fields with 20+ colleges/universities all running in the event – including other Great Northeast Athletic Conference members Colby-Sawyer, Emmanuel, Johnson & Wales, Lasell, Regis, Saint Joseph's (Me.), Simmons and the hosts, Suffolk.

Smith College captured the Women's team championship with a final score of 40 points, highlighted by four top-ten finishes. The University of Southern Maine took home the Men's team championship with 47 points including three top-ten finishes.

Women's Results

Junior Samantha Molinari (Litchfield, N.H.) paced the Raiders with a seventh overall finish with a time of 20:01.8 as she was the first member of the Rivier Women's team to cross the line. Fellow junior Sarah Thieme (Middletown, R.I.) was next to check-in as she finished with a time of 24:50.5 and junior Lauren Ferentino (Hudson, N.H.) complied a time of 26:57.2 becoming the third Raider to finish the race. Rounding out the team that scored 499 points for a 18th overall team finish were senior Samantha Hilsman (Rehoboth, Mass.) at 27:26.6, freshman Hayli Ruiter (Hudson, N.H.) at 31:31.2 and freshman Alise Kaplan (Nashua, N.H.) at 34:51.9.

GNAC Team Finishes: Colby-Sawyer (3rd), Suffolk (5th), Saint Joseph's Me (10th), Emmanuel (12th), Simmons (14th), Johnson & Wales (16th), Rivier (18th) and Lasell (19th).

Men's Results

Senior Yash Jagtap (North Andover, Mass.) led the way for the Men's team as they finished with 723 points as a team for a 24th place finish. The veteran runner crossed the line at 32:04.2 good for 118th overall. Junior Patrick Meyers (Wolfeboro Falls, N.H.) was the next Rivier finisher of the 8k race as he crossed the line at 34:52.7 and freshman Javier Carrasco Alvarez (Madrid, Spain) checked in at 51:56.0. Four other members of the team all crossed the line past the 1:00.0 mark together. Freshman Benjamin Lindsey (Derry, N.H) and Kevin Redler (Ellington, Conn.) both finished with indentical times of 1:01:05.7 while classmates Nikolas Pignone (Stoneham, Mass.) and Chance Eason-Jones (Manchester, Conn.) had the same time of 1:01:14.6.

GNAC Team Finishes: Colby-Sawyer (3rd), Suffolk (6th), Saint Joseph's Me. (11th), Johnson & Wales (15th), Lasell (17th), Regis (19th) and Rivier (24th).

Next Up

Both teams will return to course on Saturday, November 2nd when they compete at the annual Great Northeast Athletic Conference championships. The host course this year will be on the campus of Saint Joseph's College (Maine) in Standish, Maine. The women's event will begin at 1pm with the men's event slated to start at 2pm.